Before the Village

Creekmouth’s landscape has, for centuries, been marshland interspersed with streams and bogs. Changes began at Creekmouth in the mid 19th century when factories started springing up along the shoreline. Factories and the Northern and Southern Outfalls polluted the river to the extent it was classed as biologically dead. Improvement in the quality of the water

The first gunpowder magazine at Creeksmouth was commissioned, and owned, by a Mr John Ivedales. It was referred to as a stone built magazine but they were usually built in brick and then clad in stone. They were, at this time, guarded by soldiers. Creeksmouth was an ideal spot for a gunpowder magazine as it

The original Crooked Billet Alehouse located in the marshes at Creekmouth, was first mentioned in 1719 and it, along with the Gunpowder warehouses, was the only building in this lonely and isolated part of Barking before the arrival of the Lawes factory in the 1850’s. Coming and Going During the time of the Barking fishing

Sir John Bennet Lawes – 1814-1900 Sir John Bennet Lawes was born at Rothamsted Manor in 1814. He was educated at Eton and Oxford but left without a degree. He turned one of the bedrooms in the manor into a laboratory and conducted experiments on fertilisers using bones, guano, potash and superphosphates. In 1843 he

Barking fishing boat owner, James Whennel, owned two fishing boats. They were part of a small fleet called ‘ The Short Blue’ because of the small, blue square on their flags. Mr Whennell’s daughter, Sarah, married Scotsman, Scrymgeour Hewett in 1795. When James died he left his fishing boats to his son-in-law. Scrymgeour worked hard